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Self-assembly of DNA-gold nanoaggregate for visual detection of thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) mRNA via lateral flow assay

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Abstract

Nucleic acid lateral flow assay (NALFA) with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as colorimetric probes have been extensively adopted for point-of-care testing (POCT). However, the sensitivity of NALFA still needs to be improved. Herein, DNA-gold nanoaggregate (DNA-AuNA) was assembled as a signal amplification probe of NALFA for sensitive detection of tumor marker TK1 mRNA. Four functional oligonucleotides with complementary pairs were assembled to form DNA-AuNA that coupled more AuNPs to improve sensitivity. Thus, the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.36 pM, which is lower than that of conventional AuNPs-based NALFA. Moreover, the bioassay showed good reproducibility, stability, and specificity for detecting TK1 mRNA. The detection of TK1 mRNA in human serum was also satisfactory. Therefore, DNA-AuNA-based NALFA provides a sensitive method for portable detection of TK1 mRNA.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support through grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21974083) and Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (No. 2021JZ-23).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Anal Chem for Life Science of Shaanxi Province, Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710119, China

    Jing Wang, Lu Shi, Qiaorong Tang, Xinyu Zhu, Mengmeng Wu, Wei Liu, Baoxin Li & Yan Jin

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  1. Jing Wang
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Wang, J., Shi, L., Tang, Q. et al. Self-assembly of DNA-gold nanoaggregate for visual detection of thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) mRNA via lateral flow assay. Microchim Acta 190, 454 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-023-06036-y

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